Deprivation of liberty

Leigh Day has a ‘well-deserved reputation for taking on cutting-edge cases’, and is ‘creative and wide ranging in its challenges’ whilst also remaining ‘realistic in terms of advice and litigation strategy’- Legal 500 2013

Someone is deprived of their liberty if they are:

Confined to a limited place for a period of time

Without consent

By the state

If someone falls within these criteria and their detention has not been authorised, then their detention is unlawful.

Legal action, including judicial review, and Human Rights Act claims may follow. We specialise in all these areas for clients who are illegally detained in immigration detention centres, prisons, hospitals, care homes, supported living and foster care placements.

Examples of the clients we have assisted include:

A case brought for five victims of torture detained under immigration powers contrary to the Home Office’s published policy which established that all five had been unlawfully detained and secured substantial damages for four of the five claimants.

A man who was found to have been unlawfully detained for four and a half months because the judge who had convicted him and sent him to prison had done so under the wrong Act, resulting in a substantial award of compensation.

A man with learning disabilities and autism detained in a care home when he was asking to return home to his family home where a care package could be set up to meet his needs, resulting in his immediate return home.